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Evolve 8 bommies ~ New fish, with beards~


spazizz

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You do 100% water changes? I was always under the impression that would create a cycle or at least that's what I was always told?

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Not true, at least not in my experience. I do 100% water changes every time.

 

You do 100% water changes? I was always under the impression that would create a cycle or at least that's what I was always told?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Tank is looking good. I wasn't satisfied though with the growth from using IO only. So I'm using 50/50 IO & Oceanic. The chalice is gone, not the type of coral I want to keep.

 

DSCI0002_zps1f5ce3cd.jpg

 

Every thing here has grown a bit. Especially the stylo but the polyps all have 1-3 new polyps.

 

DSCI0005_zps575806d0.jpg

 

So much new growth.

DSCI0008_zpsaa3c688d.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

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Looking good Spizazz. Your husbandry is obviously working out wondrously. I am debating how I want to maintain my PicO 5g and seeing as though we have similar tastes in corals and yours are doing so well I'm definitely following along here. Also, you can easily get a skimmer into the PicO 5g C1. Also, I was playing around with the idea of combining C2 and C3, which would provide enough space for a reactor and skimmer technically :).

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Thank you, Ive learned large water change are the simplest way to reef with out all the testing and over doing every thing. I really like simplicty. Id run skimmer on this tank if I could, but that will have to wait until I upgrade though.

 

What corals are you planning?

 

 

Looking good Spizazz. Your husbandry is obviously working out wondrously. I am debating how I want to maintain my PicO 5g and seeing as though we have similar tastes in corals and yours are doing so well I'm definitely following along here. Also, you can easily get a skimmer into the PicO 5g C1. Also, I was playing around with the idea of combining C2 and C3, which would provide enough space for a reactor and skimmer technically :).

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Thank you, Ive learned large water change are the simplest way to reef with out all the testing and over doing every thing. I really like simplicty. Id run skimmer on this tank if I could, but that will have to wait until I upgrade though.

 

What corals are you planning?

SPS dominant with some of my favorite zoas and probably a jawbreaker. About the only LPS I'm specifically interested in would be another Bleeding Apple Scoly. Small potential for a Euphalyia because the wife loves them.

 

5G (which is actually a lil over 6 gal) is the smallest I have ever gone. 100% water changes weekly are certainly possible but since I have never done them that big, I would be a little anxious the first few times. Are you completely satisfied that you have the best quality salt mix?

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SPS dominant with some of my favorite zoas and probably a jawbreaker. About the only LPS I'm specifically interested in would be another Bleeding Apple Scoly. Small potential for a Euphalyia because the wife loves them.

 

5G (which is actually a lil over 6 gal) is the smallest I have ever gone. 100% water changes weekly are certainly possible but since I have never done them that big, I would be a little anxious the first few times. Are you completely satisfied that you have the best quality salt mix?

 

My wife loves the duncan, so my vote goes for them to appease your significant other. Your tank sounds like it will look great.

 

As far as salt, I like my mix. If youve read my thread Ive been experimenting with ratios. Nothing bad has happened but right now I'm liking my parameters to be on the higher side rather then lower. Ex, Calcium at 450-495 rather than 400.

 

You can always start slow with larger water changes. One week you could 10%, the next week do 15%, then 20% and so on until you get up to 90-100%

 

Right now I remove all of my LR, I put it in a bucket with some of the tanks water then I clean my sand(the dirty water goes into a different bucket). It's so easy to do this kind of stuff in a small tank.

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Thanks a lot for the details. I have read through the thread and just wasn't sure if you felt you had hit your optimal ratio or not. Agree 450+ is the target for Calcium. Are you achieving that with no dosing at all? I wonder how much SPS a tank this size could handle without the need to dose a 2-part solution and still maintain only the weekly 100% WC. I feel like a clam would necessitate dosing, but not sure if "many sticks" would.

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Thanks a lot for the details. I have read through the thread and just wasn't sure if you felt you had hit your optimal ratio or not. Agree 450+ is the target for Calcium. Are you achieving that with no dosing at all? I wonder how much SPS a tank this size could handle without the need to dose a 2-part solution and still maintain only the weekly 100% WC. I feel like a clam would necessitate dosing, but not sure if "many sticks" would.

Well Oceanic salt has 590 calcium and IO has 400 so if I do 50/50 that equals to 495 calcium. A lot of people dont like Oceanic because of the high calcium and some people dont like IO because they usually have to dose since the calcium is so low, so I combine them to get the numbers I want.

 

Not sure about how much SPS the tank could handle with out dosing 2-part. Right now Im doing my water changes every 2-3 weeks and every thing looks good by the end but growth slows down a little. If I need to ill just do water changes more often when the time comes.

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Im just guessing here but... I started getting some spotty die off of my coralline, I think this might be because of the higher calcium from using more Oceanic(unbalanced parameters). One thing to note is the die off is only in the higher light areas. The good news is my corals don't care and are blowing up in growth.

 

Ill probably be going back to using 2/3 IO and 1/3 Oceanic.

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Cameron6796

That's weird. I really love this tank btw so simple, are you just using a 5.5 gallon tank from aqueon or something. I'd love to try and imitate this sort of thing.

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Thank you, glad you like it. The tank is just a plain ol 5.5g

That's weird. I really love this tank btw so simple. Is this aio style?

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Spazizz, I really love your simplistic look. Actually, I think I like it a lot better than my personal 5.5g. I went oposite and pput in 7-10lbs of live rock, and even then I still have an aquaclear 30 running aswell... But then again for a time I had a clown and a yellow watchman goby. I only did 25% water changes very rarely. I think there was a 4 or 5 month period where I didn't do a water change. I didn't get algae or anything the tank hit the 6 month year mark and became pretty dang stable, just no coral growth :( After realizing this, (today really lol) I need to start doing more frequent water changes.

 

I am planning on upgrading to a little larger tank, there is a local reefer who is selling me his JBJ AIO, he says its an 8 or 12g, I'll find out when I pick it up ;) I'll probably move my more expensive corals into the new tank, and make then 5.5 something unique... either macro algae or even a pest tank like islandofiki...

 

Anyways, your tank is great... Keep doing them dang water changes! I wish I would have

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Thank you. I do love both minimal and heavy hardscapes. Both have their pros and cons. Minimal scapes are easier to take care of though so they work well with a pico.

 

I use this thread to keep track of when I do water changes, I typiclly post some thing in here when I do one. I do have a little bit of algae(very very little) but that's because my clean up crew is only dwarf ceriths. They suck at eating algae, they are only good for cleaning the glass and digging into the surface of my sand bed.

 

I do owe all the growth Im getting to my large water changes.

 

Do a pest tank. That's one thing on my reefng bucket list.

 

Thanks again.

Spazizz, I really love your simplistic look. Actually, I think I like it a lot better than my personal 5.5g. I went oposite and pput in 7-10lbs of live rock, and even then I still have an aquaclear 30 running aswell... But then again for a time I had a clown and a yellow watchman goby. I only did 25% water changes very rarely. I think there was a 4 or 5 month period where I didn't do a water change. I didn't get algae or anything the tank hit the 6 month year mark and became pretty dang stable, just no coral growth :( After realizing this, (today really lol) I need to start doing more frequent water changes.

 

I am planning on upgrading to a little larger tank, there is a local reefer who is selling me his JBJ AIO, he says its an 8 or 12g, I'll find out when I pick it up ;) I'll probably move my more expensive corals into the new tank, and make then 5.5 something unique... either macro algae or even a pest tank like islandofiki...

 

Anyways, your tank is great... Keep doing them dang water changes! I wish I would have

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pismo_reefer

I do owe all the growth Im getting to my large water changes.

 

I totally agree with this.

I'm also get phenominal growth, attributed solely to 100% water changes. :D

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Got tired of all the frags I had hidden behind my rock, so I just glued them all to my main rock. Don't care. Coral valley.

 

I broke the top off my elkhorn off, so I moved it to my 16g.

 

I think the bleached coralline was from to long of a photo period. I increased it about 2 weeks ago. Since doing so Ive had some algae pop up as well. -__-

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I just wanted to see what happned and I forgot that I even did it. I lowered my hours back down.

Hmm. Did you need an increase or just wanted it

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Beautiful little reef! I am planning on using this same method for my new tank, so I am glad to see it is working well for you. I find it interesting that you remove the rock work during water changes. I have always wanted to do that, but am afraid that it will stress out the corals.

 

Quick question:

How do you mount corals onto your aquascape? I notice in the earlier pictures that there are several frag plugs on the sand, but in later pictures there are no plugs glued to your aquascape. I would like to avoid frag plugs as well in my final scape, as it is very noticeable in such small tanks.

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:)

 

The coral will be perfectly fine if you remove them for water changes. Id rather them be in a bucket of SW than exposed while I clean the tank.

 

I glue my coral to rubble then glue that rubble to the LR. Once I decide that I like the spot they are in Ill just let them grow on that spot or remove them from the rubble and just glue the actual coral to the LR.

Beautiful little reef! I am planning on using this same method for my new tank, so I am glad to see it is working well for you. I find it interesting that you remove the rock work during water changes. I have always wanted to do that, but am afraid that it will stress out the corals.

 

Quick question:

How do you mount corals onto your aquascape? I notice in the earlier pictures that there are several frag plugs on the sand, but in later pictures there are no plugs glued to your aquascape. I would like to avoid frag plugs as well in my final scape, as it is very noticeable in such small tanks.

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dont know if ive said it before but i love this build. a lot.

Pfffft your tank is awesome, I love the single rock. I was going to go that route but I needed some where to put a zoa island so I ended up with more than one rock. Minimal ftw.

 

 

 

Tank notes- It's been 3 weeks since my last water change and my tank looks terrrrrrible. Algae all over the glass, little tufts growing here and there, thousands of little feather dusters all over my glass, brownishing looking sand. This is the longest this tank has with out a water change. Corals are doing great though.

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